


A Tale of Best Friends, Love, and Other Things Girls Do

by TaiWind



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, That's basically all this is, it's 4:30 AM on a tuesday and my light is out and i'm DONE, self indulgent lesbian fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-08-09 02:08:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7782760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaiWind/pseuds/TaiWind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A girl's life isn't easy. Especially if you're Kjelle. Or Severa. Thankfully, the two have each other - though it takes them a while to realize how much of each other they really could have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Tale of Best Friends, Love, and Other Things Girls Do

**Author's Note:**

> this was 50% written for a friend who is more kjellevera trash than myself  
> the other 50% is me trying to prove to myself that i can write lesbians if i try  
> also i like to experiment with formats if you haven't figured that out yet  
> there's some self indulgent shit in here, like the parent ships, and severa/laurent which is what i paired up in my awakening game but in here he's only really there to provide some angst and it's not really the main focus anyway. you're here for the lesbians. go enjoy some lesbians.

Their first meeting was hardly pure circumstance. Kjelle's mom and Severa's dad, in spite of their differences, were best friends, and the two families often met up for visits, letting the two girls play while the adults talked about life, business and other things a three-year old wouldn't possibly understand. Stahl and Vaike worried initially that the girls would fight, but they didn't – just goes to show how much (or rather, how little) dads know their daughters sometimes. The girls were happy together; they shared dolls. Sometimes, Severa would leave her dolls at Kjelle's house, and cried and cried until her parents agreed to take her to see her friend again. Stahl suspected nothing. Cordelia knew, and she gave her daughter a kiss on the forehead and a candy for her cleverness. Severa didn't eat the candy, she gave it to Kjelle instead. Kjelle blushed a little and stuttered out a "thank you." All four parents thought it was adorable.

* * *

Three years passed. The girls enrolled in elementary school together. Severa made new friends; Kjelle reluctantly made one or two. She didn't feel like she needed to make new friends at first, but after she saw how popular Severa was, she was afraid she'd lose her to the pull of the alpha girl life. So she got other friends. They proved not enough. In math class, she passed Severa a note. 'Best friends forever?' asked the note. She got the note back during history, with a 'Forever' and a little smiley face written on. Kjelle smiled. Severa smiled back.

* * *

Three years passed. Kjelle and Severa were inseparable. Whenever the teachers asked the class to work in pairs, you'd sooner see Owain and Inigo together – the former refused to work with the latter, stating they were "sworn rivals" – than Kjelle and Severa apart. Severa had other friends, of course, but Kjelle was always by her side.

One day, during recess, they saw one of Severa's friends, Cynthia, being bullied by some other kids. Older kids. "Weakling," they called her. "Weirdo. Freak." Severa couldn't stand to listen. She stepped in to protect her friend.

"If you want to get to Cynthia, you'll have to go through me."

The older kids laughed. "Aww, look at the little girl protecting her friend. Isn't that just pwecious?" they mocked her. They looked taller than they did from afar, and Severa was worried. Cynthia had tears in her eyes already; Severa's were beginning to form as the older kids closed in.

"Don't you _dare_ hurt my friends."

Severa looked up, and there was Kjelle, thunder in her eye, facing against the older kids. The bullies took a step back, somewhat distraught as the girl cracked her knuckles. "Don't you dare."

The girls were sent to the principal's office that day. Cynthia, through her tears, told the principal that Kjelle beat up the bullies to protect her. Severa said the same thing. Kjelle said nothing, deep in worry that she'd get suspended, or expelled. But beneath that worry, she knew it'd have been worth it – to protect Severa and her friend. The principal let the two off with a warning, and sent them home. Severa's parents were less than happy that their girl got into trouble. Kjelle's parents were more than happy that their girl was strong enough to protect others. She was just happy she was strong enough to protect her best friend.

* * *

Six years pass. Kjelle is the school's sports all-star, excelling at all kinds of physical activity, and keeps winning the school gold after gold after gold. Severa doesn't want to stay behind after her best friend, and decides that if Kjelle can be the best at sports, she'll be the best at academics. She gets a math tutor – Laurent, an upperclassman and the son of one of the science teachers. Rumors spread. They're seen together in the hallways, holding hands. Kjelle feels like a punch to the gut whenever she hears these rumors – not that an actual punch could get past her. Severa doesn't hang out with her as much anymore – now she's always with Laurent, and she looks happy, and he looks happy too, but it looks forced. Kjelle forces herself to smile too, and she tries to find herself a boy, thinking maybe it'll fill the gap in her heart, or maybe it'll make Severa jealous, but Kjelle isn't interested in boys, and she's even less interested in lying to herself. So she just focuses on her sports career, trying to ignore her best friend making out with her boyfriend on the bleachers whenever she's not cheering. She lays awake at night, heart heavy, wondering if this is what every best friend goes through, but she doesn't know the answer.

Laurent breaks up with Severa three months later, much to the dismay of everyone at school who considered them the perfect couple – two straight-A students, madly in love, now no longer together. Kjelle doesn't care for the melodrama; she's more concerned with consoling her best friend, who desperately needs a shoulder to cry on that evening. You'd think that Kjelle'd be upset with Severa for ignoring her for so long, but the thought doesn't even cross her mind, not once. Severa tells her what Laurent said – that he didn't find the relationship "emotionally fulfilling." She makes Kjelle promise not to hurt him, because she knows her best friend and she knows Kjelle wants to take revenge on the man who broke Severa's heart; but she also knows she's the only one who can hold Kjelle back – it's less out of any shred of pity for that spectacled jerk, but more out of self-interest, knowing that she might not see Kjelle again if she does anything rash. Kjelle clenches her fist and swallows her fury, listening to her best friend quietly sob into her shirt and stroking her hair comfortingly. Until suddenly, the sobbing stops, and Severa looks up at Kjelle, her face red from crying, but her mouth crooked into a smile, and Kjelle can't help but smile back.

"Screw boys, am I right?" Severa says, voice weak.

"I'd never," Kjelle responds. "I don't care about boys."

She closes her eyes, and so does Severa, and their lips meet for the first time, in a glorious explosion of fireworks in their minds that no other feeling can come close to. Kjelle's heart is beating fast and loud enough that she's sure Severa can hear it, but she doesn't care. She doesn't have a care in the world, with the girl of her dreams tight in her arms.

* * *

Nine years pass. An awkward nine years for the girls' relationship – neither of them wants to mention the kiss from that evening, as it would inevitably lead into a conversation about emotions that neither Severa nor Kjelle particularly want to have, though they secretly both hope that the other would bring it up, if only for the small chance of something more than a kiss. Nevertheless, the two remain best friends, in addition to being roommates in their college dorm, along with some other girls they were friends with in school – namely, Cynthia and Noire. The four girls go about their college studies, and earn their Master's degrees in their respective majors. Cynthia decides to throw a party to celebrate, and they invite their friends, and their friends' friends – and what could have remained a humble celebration with a few sips of alcohol turns into an explosion of debauchery at a nearby pub, an explosion that Kjelle and Severa decide to tactically avoid, instead sitting in their dorm alone, drinking their celebratory beverages of choice in relative moderation in awkward silence. Kjelle knows the one question on Severa's mind, and Severa is likewise aware of what Kjelle is wondering. _Who'll bring it up first?_

"We could go out, you know," Severa says, finally breaking the silence. "Join the others. It's not too late."

"I don't feel like it," Kjelle responds, staring down into her glass. "Besides, Sev... There's something I think we need to talk about."

"What is it?"

"The kiss we shared years ago," Kjelle says, looking up and at Severa, who winces ever-so-slightly when she hears the words, clenching her teeth as she looks back into Kjelle's eyes, the longing stare feeling more like a death glare at the moment.

"Whaaaaaat? You're still thinking about that?" Severa says finally, hellbent on hiding her true feelings just a bit more, not wanting to confront the reality of them, and frankly not being sure how. "That's silly, it's... it's been... you really should just..." She sighs a heavy sigh, finally giving into the pressure of Kjelle's continued stare – the death glare's vibe had all but wiped away, and Severa could feel all the feelings Kjelle had had for her, the feelings she'd been saving up for many, many years, in that one look. "We'll have to talk about it eventually anyway, won't we?"

"Not necessarily," Kjelle says, and she stands up off of her bed, setting her glass aside, and opens up her drawer, nearly tearing it out; Severa flinches, but keeps watching as Kjelle's hand shuffles around inside, finally pulling out an oddly familiar scrap of paper. Kjelle walks over and sits next to Severa, who finally recognizes the paper as Kjelle unfolds it – it's the friendship note from when they were six years old.

"You've kept that all these years?" Severa asks, any semblance of mocking she'd usually have with these matters completely absent from her voice. Kjelle nods silently and grabs a pen from the nearby table, turning the note over and scribbling something on it. She finally stops and, still silent, hands the note to Severa, who can't help but read the writing out loud.

"Do you love me?"

Severa is on the verge of tears. Happy tears, of the same variety as the smile slowly spreading across her face. Her mind is swirling with thoughts, the most dominant ones being thousands of the same thing – _yes, yes, yes, yes, yes I do._ But she doesn't say anything, instead flipping the note around and folding it, then handing it back to Kjelle. The note now shows only one word, one that has been written on it for eighteen years, now imbued with a different meaning. 'Forever.'

Kjelle immediately understands, and looks up at Severa, meeting the gaze of her best friend. Taking in the girl's features, the makeup smudged by Severa's tears of joy, her lipstick-glazed mouth shaped into an uncharacteristically loving smile, the two oversized pigtails that she found it hard to imagine the girl without, Kjelle can't help but notice how similar the situation is to the evening they had together nine years ago. Yet something tugs at the back of that thought, not letting her ignore that the air of sadness and any feelings of anger are thankfully missing, and Kjelle realizes – and figures Severa does as well – that their next kiss would be a million times better than their first.

* * *

Three years pass.

It's been a long day for the duo – moving into a new place is never easy, especially if you don't really have anyone but yourself to help you carry everything up several flights of stairs. It's not to the detriment of things to have an incredibly muscular girlfriend, however, and Severa was no slouch herself, carrying almost as much as Kjelle did, which only really served to tire her out faster. Of course Severa would have preferred a building with an elevator, and also a better place than the tiny studio apartment they were moving into, but with a lot of convincing, Kjelle had finally persuaded her to take the place, since it was so cheap that they'd have plenty of money left over to kickstart that idea they'd been working on planning out for the past three years.

Comfortably cuddled up next to her girlfriend on the sofa – the only piece of furniture in the apartment at the moment – Severa couldn't help but think about how far they'd come, from friends to best friends to girlfriends, and let out a small, barely audible giddy laugh. Kjelle, smiling, pulled her a little bit closer in response.

"What's got you so happy?"

"I'm just thinking about all the things that got us here," Severa replied, relaxing into Kjelle's side. "And all the things we still have yet to do."

"That's rather uncharacteristic of you," Kjelle remarked, allowing herself to drift off into thought for a bit too.

"Do you really think we can open a girls-only gym someday?" she asked after a while, finally breaking the silence. Kjelle did believe that they could do it, of course; but on some days, the dream felt a bit too far-fetched, and she needed her girlfriend's reassurance. And you'd never hear her admit it, but she enjoyed the reassurance.

"Duh!" Severa exclaimed, perking up, but then laid herself back down on Kjelle's shoulder, immediately missing the warmth of her body. "Don't even think for a moment that we won't. We can do it. And we'll do it together!"

"Right," Kjelle said, her determination returned to her. "Thank you, love." She gave Severa a tiny peck on the cheek, and watched as Severa blushed, her face crooking into one you'd expect from someone who'd just taken a sip of particularly sour lemonade. It's not that Severa hated kisses – far from it, especially ones from Kjelle – she was just still not used to the random displays of affection Kjelle was prone to handing out, even after three years. It was probably that one wouldn't expect Kjelle to be one to sporadically kiss her girlfriend on the cheek, or on the nose, or wherever else, because of her general stoicism, and Severa always turned into a blushing mess, even with no one else around.

They spent a few more minutes cuddling on the sofa, before Kjelle spoke up once again.

"We're gonna have to unpack this stuff."

"True," Severa replied, looking over all the aforementioned stuff – specifically, boxes upon boxes of stuff – the girls had to unpack sooner or later. "Not now, though."

"What do you want to do now?" Kjelle asked, the foxy undertone in her voice hinting that she did in fact know precisely what her girlfriend wanted to do, and Severa caught on.

"Oh, I think you know exactly what I wanna do," she said, and Kjelle found herself pulled into a kiss. Closing her eyes, she kissed back, letting all her thoughts fly out of the window and melting into the moment, love taking over on autopilot.


End file.
